In 2019, Path To Publishing doubled its revenue from 2018. We planned to do the same for 2020, if not quadruple it. Our annual event brought in 75% of our revenue, and we sold registrations for an entire year leading up to it. During the final board meeting of 2019, a unanimous decision was made to go all-in for the 2020 event, as well as our other interim programs.
By the first week of March 2020, we’d put 70% of our plans, efforts, and finances in place. We’d invested every cent of our previous year’s profit – with the exception of what we needed for company operations – into the event. Again, we left nothing on the table and gave ourselves no Plan B.
The entire crew was all aboard and, like previously mentioned, all in. Besides, 85% of our event attendees became long-term clients of Path To Publishing, forming our tribe that we refer to as Pathfinders.
We invested everything into helping individuals and business owners learn to use their stories to connect with their audiences, bringing awareness to their books and their brands, so they could achieve their own measure of success. We know our team of creative, business, and technical writers and publishing experts could offer event attendees what no one else could. Judging by the ticket sales, it seemed they knew it, too.
The strategy appeared to be paying off. The risk proved well worth it, with more registrations being sold in that short period of time than the entire year’s sales for past events. We anticipated an easy, productive, prosperous, and smooth year ahead.
An Unexpected Storm
And then along came COVID-19.
As we teach our fiction writers, great storytellers know the value of leaving something to the reader’s imagination.
When you pair in-person events with the pandemic, there’s little left to the imagination. Only a handful of registrants felt safe traveling. Their demands for ticket refunds came in left and right, but few refunds were granted to us on the deposits we’d already made. The show went on, leaving us in the red. Tides rolled in high and strong, leaving us doing anything but sailing smoothly ahead as we optimistically anticipated.
The financial damages tore through the hull of our ship. Water seeped in faster than our buckets could scoop it out until it became clear there weren’t enough buckets—or team members scooping—to keep us afloat. This state of affairs forced part of our crew to jump ship and swim to shore while it was still in sight, and we shipped the rest of them off in a dingy.
You know the saying, “Things get worse before they get better?” We thought the end of the pandemic marked the end of the worst. Instead, we found ourselves right in the eye of the storm.
Finding Our Lifesavers
That’s when organizations like SCORE, SBA, Nevada SBDC, J.P. Morgan Chase Advancing Black Pathways, WRMSDC (Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council) and their initiatives such as their Corporate Ready Program and BGAP (Business Growth Acceleration Program), U.S. Black Chambers of Commerce, Amazon Black Business Accelerator Program, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and EmployNV began throwing us lifesavers, keeping us from capsizing.
The storms raging around us began letting up, still, we put a small crew together and held onto hope. Things got better. We developed clarity about our vision, but we grew tired both mentally and physically. During our final quarter of 2023, we questioned if it might be time to jump clear and let the ship sink.
As business owners, it’s important to learn to persevere through adversity, but it’s also important to learn when it makes sense (and cents) to walk away from something. Pet projects, events, initiatives, a branch of business, a service, a product line, or even the business itself, you must know when it’s time to walk away. Or, in our case, swim away. And we stood on the ledge, preparing ourselves to jump.
Helping Us Find Our Bearings
Then along came Clark County’s TEAP.
The Economic Assistance Program promised to provide grant funding, plus one-on-one technical assistance from SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) and ESOs (Entrepreneur Support Organizations). It offered to pluck us out of the water, put back on our captain’s hat, and help us find our bearings so we could chart a course toward our dreams, visions, and goals
Although we’re only a quarter way through the program, TEAP did just that…and then some.
“What I admire most, and what makes TEAP stand out among the many programs, cohorts, initiatives, and small business opportunities I’ve engaged in since the pandemic,” says Joylynn M. Ross, Founder of Path To Publishing and Co-founder of Path To Connections, a division serving corporations, government agencies, banks, nonprofits, and small business owners, “is that they constructed this program with the heart and mind of the small business owner in mind.”
Ross continued, “The 30-minute sessions with our SMEs and ESOs are ideal for busy business owners who—let’s face it—are typically stepping away from revenue in the form of the guaranteed money existing clients bring in, or a prospect with the likely potential of bringing in new revenue, when stepping away from their business. It’s easier, and a more realistic ask, to put on the calendar—and stay committed to—a 30-minute session with an expert over a spread-out time than to commit to two- or three-hour, and on some occasions, half-day sessions.”
“TEAP handpicked subject matter experts to match with the grantees based on our needs and business model. These perfect matches are possible thanks to the one-on-one introductory call the grantees receive with Kaitlyn Schwantes, the Grant and Project Manager and Business Advisor,” Ross stated. “And it’s not just one call. Kaitlyn encourages the grantees to do a monthly check-in, sharing the link to her scheduling calendar and inviting grantees to schedule a time to talk whenever they might have the need.”
Ross is not on this journey with TEAP alone. Co-founder of Path To Connections, Brandy M. Miller, is right there in the wheelhouse with her. Ross decided that two captains—be it a captain or co-captain— are better than one and would help maximize their time in the program.
“Juana Hart with J-Hart Communications has taken us from vison, idea, and concept with our C.A.P. (Contract and Application Preparedness) Program (TM) that fills in the gaps of funding, programs, and other opportunities and initiatives designed to connect small and disadvantaged businesses with the corporations, government agencies, banks and other entities who want to work with them,” Miller shared, “to fully fleshed out proposals that speak to each of our targeted audiences.”
Ross agreed, stating, “Juana requires the small business to do prep work before their calls with her, but what makes these sessions so impactful is that Juana does her prep work as well. When she gets on those calls with grantees, she’s ready to make it as effective and efficient as possible. And she has an onboarding system and process not to be rivaled!”
Miller added, “Joylynn and I did a lot of the groundwork for our vision before we started working with Juana, but she helped us to ask ourselves the right questions to get us to solidify that vision. Juana challenged us to ask ourselves, ‘Who’s the ideal client or clients?’ and then go beyond that to put the research into figuring out how to connect with them. I know we wouldn’t be as far ahead as we are without Juana’s guidance.”
Monica Coburn with Nevada Business Advisors is someone else who is holding the crew at Path To Publishing and Path To Connections™ accountable for staying on course.
“My sessions with Monica have eerily piggybacked off whatever professional advice, system, strategies, tactics, and techniques any of my other TEAP team members have shared,” Ross says. “But the common thread between them all is the connection between building relationships and achieving success.”
And Miller couldn’t agree more, as this
concept is right in alignment with the mission and goals of Path To Connections™.
“We’ve made ‘connect for success’ our motto at Path To Connections, because we’ve seen so often the way that forming strategic partnerships allows you to accelerate your success and amplify your impact,” Miller explained. “Nothing we’ve been able to do or accomplish came about when we worked in isolation. So many small business owners fail because they haven’t learned that lesson yet.”
This lesson was so impactful that Brandy and Joylynn were led to create an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for connecting and building relationships. They even wrote a blog titled “Building Relationships Vs. Bartering” to further emphasize the importance of connections and relationship building.
“Our TEAP team have not only equipped and empowered us with the names of people and organizations who could possibly and potentially help us achieve our goals,” Ross said, “but they have made personal introductions, which have led to face-to-face virtual and inperson meetings. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the power of connection is something our company has in common with TEAP. My heart tells me this was a divine . . .well . . . connection.”
If grantees weren’t already working with the Nevada SBDC, in addition to the team of experts and advisors they get access to with TEAP, they are also connected with a Nevada SBDC Business Development Advisor to assist during and after the program.
“In addition to having already been connected with Lisa Tolliver and Amanda Elliott, I’d also worked with my appointed Nevada SBDC Business Development Advisor, Brenda Bryant. And I still have access to Brenda’s expertise while involved in TEAP,” Ross stated. “With TEAP, small businesses aren’t just given an opportunity, they are given a team to help them maximize their opportunity and realize
their business goals.”
Clearly, connections helped get Path To Publishing back on course, and the strength of the connections formed with the help of TEAP
allows them to navigate the still choppy seas ahead.
“If I could only use two words to describe TEAP thus far, it would be access and connections,” Ross states. “They’ve provided us not only access to the funding and experts needed to grow, rise up, accelerate, scale, and soar (G.R.A.S.S.) in business, but that the grass (pun intended) truly is greener on the other side . . . of the storm.”
“While not even halfway through the program yet, the successes Path To Publishing, Path To Connections, and its C.A.P. Program (TM) experienced so far because of TEAP makes us eager to share our expertise and experiences with the next round of grantees— by hopefully becoming TEAP subject matter experts ourselves—so we can end up as next year’s success stories.”